Today's Opinions

Ten Indiana school districts offered property tax referenda Nov. 8, to finance buildings or budgets. That was the most for a November election since 2010. More referenda are offered during elections in May, probably because 69 percent of all May referenda have passed since 2010. Only 39 percent of November’s have passed in that time.

On Nov. 8, 2016, nine out of 10 school referenda passed. It was a November surprise. Why did it happen?

I was chided last year for not reminding readers in time about the approach of St. Nicholas Day. Not so this year. St. Nicholas is coming Dec. 6, so there is well more than a week to make plans to take part in a great pre-Christmas tradition. Just don’t forget to put out your shoe the evening before the big day.

We were happy to hear the news, reported in Thursday’s Perry County News, that money has been raised to repair the century old Venetian lions fronting City Hall. The concrete lions are in rough shape after moving location over the years.

We’d like to suggest that once repaired, they be moved to sit outside the Tell City Depot on Seventh Street. The old Depot is no longer with us but the lions were originally intended to be sentinels that greeted guests or residents returning by train.

If you go to Old Cliff Cemetery above Cannelton and enter the left gateway and then turn immediately to your left you will see two small tombstones. Upon close examination one can read the weathered inscription on the stones.

They state that M.D. Turrell and Moses Mason, from the New Hampshire Infantry are buried there. How did Union soldiers from New England wind up in a cemetery in southern Indiana? Ah, therein lies a tale.

It feels like we are solidly in another Indian Summer, which always reminds me of an old print my father had hanging in his office: two juxtaposed images of a young man and his grandfather around a small bonfire.

For communities across Southern Indiana, Thanksgiving is a time to come together and acknowledge all the blessings we have in our lives. For many, it is a day of food, family and in my house, some football or deer hunting. We must also remember that there are those in our area who are less fortunate, and this time of year presents an opportunity to give thanks by giving back.

Mike Pence hit the nail on the head. On Sept. 8, while speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, he declared that the spirit of 1980 was back and that Donald Trump would win the White House. While others jeered, Pence predicted that the same forces that powered the Reagan revolution – working-class voters, union members, evangelicals – would align behind Trump and create a winning coalition.